Problem Summary. The Apple OSX System Preferences has a MobileMe iDisk control center that allows for a password to be assigned to the MobileMe public folder. However, nowhere is the username provided for login, so the password is useless. Furthermore, the simple URL provided isn’t text that can be copied and pasted into an email. Instead, it is only a link that results in being sent to a page with a lengthy URL.
Problem Solution. The username is to access your public folder is public and the password (if used) is the one you assigned in the System Preferences under MobileMe. The URL will be http://public.me.com/your-user-name — replace “your-user-name” with your MobileMe username which is the name before @me.com or @mobileme.com or @mac.com in your email address. To reset the password, simply remove the checkmark and/or click on the Set Password button.
Problem History. This is an issue that has, unfortunately, persisted over several years without being resolved in a simple and elegant manner, so the above work-around is still required.
Update. Within 4 days of writing this article, the above problem has now been resolved. When going to a user’s public iDisk, there is only a password requested. Congratulations Apple for the quick problem resolution!